Research On Contracts In Coordinating Three-level Supply Chain

Supply chain coordination is a very important research area in supply chain management.The main purpose of supply chain coordination is to induce the participants to select their decisions properly so that the optimal profit of the total supply chian can be achieved, while the profit of each participant is not harmed. The most frequently used method in coordinating supply chain is supply chain contracts.Under the contracts, the participants is constrained or stimulated to select the appropriate action to achieve the optimal profit of the total supply chain.For a two-level supply chain which consisted of a supplier and a retailer, it can be coordinated under many classical contracts. By properly set the parameters, the profit of the supply chain can be properly allocated between the supplier and the retailer. But in practice, a supply chain often has more than two participants. The simplest multi-level supply chain is three-level supply chain which consisted of three participants. So, many researchers had focused their research on three-level supply chain. In order to coordinate the three-level supply chain, researchers often use the same contracts to coordinate the two transaction processes, yet some did not consider the product shortage lost.Because a three-level supply chain has two transaction processes, it may be coordinated by different types of contracts.Buyback contract, revenue sharing contract and quantity discount policy are three kinds of most frequently used contracts in coordinating supply chain. In Chapter 2, three different combinations of contracts based on buy back contract, revenue sharing contract and quantity discount policy are designed to coordinate the three-level supply chain. The necessary condition for coordination under each contracts combination is given, the profit allocation among the participants is studied and the relation between the profit of each participant and the parameters of the contracts is found out. Through negotiation, by properly set the parameters of the supply chain, the coordination of the three-level supply chain can be achieved, the profit of the supply chain can be appropriately allocated among the participants. The validation of the results is verified by numerical examples. Uncertain existed in almost every process of the supply chain, so the supply chain is always accompanied with risk. Decreasing the risk is also very important for the participants of the supply chain. In Chapter 3, the variance of the profit is used to describe the risk of each parcipant. The variances of profit under the contract combinations are calculated out. Furthermore, the relations between the variance and the parameters of the contracts are illustrated by numerical examples. The result will be useful in setting the parameters of the contracts during the negotiation.In the modern stage, disruptions happened more and more frequently. Disruptions may impact the operation of the supply chain. Under disruptions, a formerly coordinated suppluy chain may be not coordinated any longer. After disruption, the participants need to mitigate it. But the process maybe complicated. If the participants did not treat if properly, the supply may be broken off. So, it is very important to design contracts which have the property of anti-disruption-ability. In Chapter 4, Based on buy back contract and revenue sharing contract, three contact combinations which have the property of anti-disruption-ability are developed to coordinate the three-level supply chain. Under these contracts, the three-level supply chain is coordinated whether the demand disruption happened or not.